'Mars is a valuable real estate piece'

'Mars doesn't have a magnetic field, so we will have to find shelter against certain radiations'

A view of the surface of Mars, with flow features commonly found at the base of slopes. These features are bound by ridges that resemble terrestrial moraines, suggesting that these deposits are ice-rich, or may have been ice-rich in the past.

REUTERS/NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona/via REUTERS

Sarwat Nasir,
Khaleej Times

While space experts and researchers have been studying Mars for decades to make scientific discoveries, a renowned architect has given the red planet a new label. He called Mars "a very valuable piece of real estate".

Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, famous for his off-beat architectural designs, was giving a presentation at the World Government Summit 2018 on how evolution can lead to Mars. He talked about how Mars can be a fit for humans.

"Why colonise Mars? Of course, it's our most immediate neighbour, it?s medium-sized and it has similar qualities to moons of Jupiter and Saturn. You can reach Mars in only three months. Mars is somewhere around 20 degrees Celsius at the equator in the summer, which is what we have here right now," he said.

"If you analyse the different planets and moons as a real estate project, you will see that Mars is a very valuable piece of real estate. It has almost half the radius of Earth, but, the exact same amount of dry lands as the Earth since it doesn't have any oceans. It's an amazing amount of space."

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He highlighted some key factors about Mars and how it's a better candidate for residency as compared to other planets. "A person who would weigh 100kg on Earth would weigh only 38kg on Mars, so, that's the fastest diet you can do. By comparison, Jupiter you would weigh a quarter of a tonne. So, it'll be nice and light to hang out on Mars," he said.

"Mars has fairly peaceful winds as compared to the supersonic wind speeds you have on the other planets. One thing that seems like a cosmic coincidence is that Mars has a day of 24 hours and 40 minutes, which is almost as same as Earth. You get 40 minutes extra, which I think everybody can use.

"In Mercury, a day is almost half a year. The tilts of Mars are almost the same as Earth and that's important because it means Mars has the same seasons on Earth. In Uranus, you get 21 years of sunlight and 21 years of night time, which is pretty insane if you try to live there. Mars has both water and carbon, which are the two main ingredients for life. Mars doesn't have a magnetic field, so we will have to find shelter against certain radiations."

However, Ingels suggested a possible solution to protect humans from radiation. He said it possible to build habitats for humans on Mars, which would involve a hybrid-type of architecture such as using carbon fibre, excavations and 3D-printed habitats.